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Sunday, June 12, 2016

Warcraft movie is job security for my son

Movie Title: Warcraft

Grade: B- (I can't bring myself to give it a C)

Rating: PG-13,
1 hour 40 minutes

In a Nutshell: Big Disclaimer….my son is actually one of
the computer animation artists for Blizzard (I know, super cool, right?), so I’m
completely biased and want this movie to do well at the box office.

For what it’s worth, my son didn’t work on this movie. Instead, he works on the actual World of
Warcraft video game. I’m so happy that
he has a job he loves and gets paid to use his amazing talents! By the way, if you’re a WOW fan, you HAVE to
go to Blizz Con. I don’t even play the
game, but I went last year and had a blast!

In case you didn’t know, director Duncan Jones is the son of
the late singer/songwriter David Bowie.
For the horde!

Uplifting theme:

“If
love is what you need, you must be willing to travel to the ends of the
earth for it.” – Guardian Medivh (Ben Foster)

“No
one can stand against the darkness alone.” – Alodi (Glenn Close)

Things I liked:

The
fan service is substantial and impressive. There are tons of Easter eggs in the film, I'm told. The film made $45 million at
the box office in ONE DAY in China alone!

I
thought the CGI blended well with the live actors. The motion capture work was really great.

The 3D
aspect enhanced the visual experience. See it on the biggest screen you can.

I loved
the cool wolves and the detail of Durotan’s fingers running through the
fur. In fact, the detail of all of
the animation was awesome (and I’m not just saying that because my son is
an animation artist). All
of their video games are like that too.
The world-building talent is truly amazing.

I love
the vibrant, ethereal glowing blue and green colors, which is a classic
Blizzard look.

While
Paula Patton (Garona) only gave us a surface-level performance, I thought
Ben Schnetzer (Khadgar) showed us some depth.

I loved
Durotan and thought his character was the most intriguing. Is it weird that I loved his hairy,
muscular chest? When you see him take off his wolf fur cloak, his back looks almost real. He's a striking, almost handsome creature that you fall in love with.

During
an awesome battle scene, Garona (Paula Patton) thrusts a sword through a “bad
guy” and green blood splatters on the “camera”. I thought that was a cool effect to make
you believe it was live footage, rather than CGI.

Glenn
Close? How did THAT happen?

You
feel the weight of heavy weapons, which is hard to do in animated film. The battle scenes are pretty epic.

Things I didn’t like:

Despite
the fact that my son works on World of Warcraft, I’ve never played the
video game, so I was unfamiliar with most of the characters, the lore, and the worlds. I wish the film somehow gave us newbies
a primer on the “world” in the beginning of the movie. Most “uninitiated” viewers will be a bit
confused. It’s kind of like
watching “The Lord of the Rings” where the lands and characters have
unusual names and it takes some time to figure out who the good guys are
and what’s going on. (I loved the LOTR
trilogy, by the way!) The good news
is there isn’t a quiz at the end of watching this movie, but you WILL feel like a nerd for watching it. There are hundreds of hours of game development which, you can imagine, would be hard to cram into a 90 minute movie.

Ben
Foster’s character, the Guardian, has a really bad CGI moment and does a
lot of over-the-top acting.

Sometimes
it’s really hard to understand what the characters are saying.

It’s
hard to become truly invested in most of the characters, because we aren’t
told very much about them and they begin fighting immediately. There are a couple of protagonists who
experience personal growth, but many of the others are paper thin.

The
emerging romance was awkward.

Funny lines:

“Whatever you plan to do, do it
now!” – Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel)

“Can
you hide your fat belly?” – Durotan
(Toby Kebbell from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

“Better than you can hide your fat
head.” – Draka (Anna Galvin)

Interesting lines:

“For
orcs, there is no other life but war, but with the humans, there could
be.” – Durotan

“We
fight together or we die together.” – Durotan

“For
years, our worlds have been at peace, but something is coming. I feel it.” – King Llane Wrynn (Dominic
Cooper)